The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-08-27

able to reach, quicken, ennoble, sane
tify, transform, save men in every con-
dition of life, among all classes, rich
and poor, bond and free, high and low,
learned and unlearned, kings and peas
notwithstanding sorrow into joy,
disappointment into hope, weakness
into strength, fear into courage, hate
into love, selfshness and pride into
generosity and self-forgetfulness, ill
doing into well-doing, oaths and curses
into blessings and thanksgiving and
songs of trust.
Do not misunderstood me. There
are other influences in this world be-
sides religion that have elevating, en-
nobling, saving power. 1 would not
undervalue or make light of these.
Among the more important of such
influences are doubtless education,
homes, association with the good land
in their way, science, philosophy, laws,
physical environment. All these should
be employed and made the most Of,
and some OF them are exceedingly i'm
portant. And yet it is no disparage-
ment to any of these to say that, as an
agency for bringing hope to the des-
pairing, comfort to the sad, courage to
the faltering, succor to the tempted,
strength to the weak, patience in trial,
light in bereavement, calmness in the
presence of death, and above all moral
and spiritual regeneration to men dead
in Indifference and sin, none of them
have a 1.-THE Of the power Of religion.
AS practical reformatory influence in
society, as begetter of moral power,
as an inspiration to men to live for the
highest things, religion has been, at
least through all Christian history, is
now, and probably always will be, with
out rival, without the possibility of a
rival-something alone, unique, incom-
parable, truly divine-divine because
the point at which man consciously lays
hold of strength higher than his own;
divine because the point at which the
divine life flows consciously into his life.
You see, then, what mean by relig-
ion as an experience.
1t is not too much to say that there is
nothing in human life so deep, so holy,
so dear, or that lifts one up to such
lordships, superiorities, freedoms, as
religion, when it once becomes real
experience of the soul.
Nor is religion as an experience re-
stricted to any class of persons, or to
any age or time. 1t has come in the
past, and is coming still, to untold mill
lions of all classes, kings, beggars; the
lordliest, the lowliest great minds like
Jesus, Paul, Augustine, Luther, Mil
ton, Cromwell, Newton; the manual
toiler; the lonely woman in her garrett ;
the sailor on the sea the prodigal son
squandering his substance in riotous
living the old man lettering above the
grave; the little child in its sorrow.
And it waits to reveal itself to you
and to me.
We none of us know much about our
future. God kindly hangs veil before
our eyes. But this much we most
surely know, the future of each of us
will be full Of deep heart-needs, which
must be supplied from some source
higher than ourselves.
We shall all our lives have work to
do that will not be easy-that will tend
ever to sink into mere drudgery and
slavery. What can prevent it : What
can give us songs in our toll ? Moth
ing so certainly-this is the testimony
of the ages-nothing so certainly as the
acceptance of our tasks as from God, to
be done for him, not only as part of
his plan of things, but under his eye,
and in the light of his smile if done
we'll
We shall all, a thousand times over
in the years that are coming, be pressed
hard by temptation-temptation to hold
lightly by our integrity; to stoop some
what below high honor; to suppress
the truth when we ought bravely to
speak it out +; to vary from the line of
strict honesty in business to be selfish
when we ought to be generous to ask
what is easy, or popular, or expedient,
when we ought to think only of what
is right; to yield weak and slavish ODE
dience to our appetites or passions in
stead of keeping our lower natures in
subsection to our higher. What can
help us in these crisis times of life
What can give US strength to stand on
our feet and be men-yielding obedi-
ence ever to conscience as our king
There is no such help as religion. The
soul that has once definitely committed
itself to the religious life, that has
opened itself to religion as an expe-
rience, that has learned to identify the
voice of conscience with the voice of
God, is armed against temptation in all
its forms as no other can possibly be.
Consciously in alliance with a power
higher than his own, by subtle law
that higher power flows into his life.